Earnings from incoming calls on the decline

The government's earnings from incoming international telephone calls fell 23.41pc year-on-year to Tk 1,201cr in 2016 because of a sharp decline in inbound voice traffic and a rise in the call routing rate.

Shahjahan Mahmood, chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), said the regulator is trying to fix the issue by way of enacting regulation.

The government earned Tk 1,568cr in 2015 from incoming international calls.

In 2013-14, the government's earnings from international incoming calls stood at Tk 1,851cr, although the daily call volume was less than half then.

At that time, the call termination rate was 3 cents a minute, 51.75pc of which went to the state coffer; the government reduced the floor rate to 1.5 cents in early 2015 and its share to 40pc.

The telecom regulator found that the international incoming call minutes declined 46pc within a span of 20 months. Total incoming voice calls stood at 383.2cr minutes in May 2015, but it dropped to 205.7cr minutes at the end of December 2016.

Bangladesh is losing an additional Tk 1,368cr in earnings a year due to the significant decrease in the international incoming calls.

Similarly, the mobile operators and interconnection exchanges faced Tk 932cr in lost earnings, according to AMTOB.